Author Archives: Andrew Long

by | December 30, 2010 · 3:11 pm

Holiday Bowl Preview

The Huskies play the Nebraska Cornhuskers in about 4 hours.  Quickly, here are 5 keys I have to the game.

  • Stopping the run. The Huskies are playing with a depleted defensive line, missing 3 guys who played a significant amount of time this year.  They’re going up against a gigantic offensive line that Nebraska has.  We saw one result earlier in the year in which the Huskers ran away from the Dawgs.  If the Huskies want to have a chance tonight they can’t get ran over by Nebraska.  Expect the Huskies to load the box and force Taylor Martinez to pass.  Cort Dennison will get to play in this rematch, which has to help a little bit.  Nebraska will get their rushing yards, but we can’t let them go crazy like they did in September.
  • Limit the big plays. This killed the Huskies in the first meeting.  There were too many missed tackles, and Nebraska took advantage.  There were too many turnovers, and Nebraska took advantage. Yes, Nebraska had a few sustained drives, but most of their scores came on quick strikes.  We have to limit those this time around.
  • Start Fast. The Dawgs fell into a 14-0 hole last time against Nebraska and never could climb back into it.  They need to at least keep pace with the Huskers this time, and getting some early momentum would be huge.  We have most of the intangibles on our side, if we get some momentum this would be huge for our team.
  • Establish the run. The Huskies only success in the last game against Nebraska came by running the football.  The running game has been the bread and butter for the Huskies 3 game winning streak and it needs to be again tonight.  We all remember how good the Husker secondary is so the running game needs to be established to loosen them up.  Look for Locker to run more than he has all season.  Which leads me to….
  • Jake Locker. Much has been made of Locker having a second chance against Nebraska.  In a way, it’s fitting.  Locker came to UW when it was at its lowest point and now they’re playing in a bowl game; Locker’s lowest point came against Nebraska and now he gets a chance for redemption in his final game.  I don’t see him laying an egg like he did the first time.  I don’t see him having an amazing game either.  It will be another, gritty Locker performance that we’ve all taken for granted.  His legacy is already completed, but if UW wants a chance in this game they need one more chapter written by this Husky legend.

In all honesty, I don’t see the Huskies winning.  I think they lose by 10 or 14, call it Nebraska – 37 Huskies – 27.  With that being said, don’t forget how great it is to be here.  Put on your purple, and be proud to be a Husky fan today.  Go Dawgs!

Andrew

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by | December 29, 2010 · 11:29 pm

Huskies Win in L.A.

The UW basketball team got a huge win against USC tonight to open Pac-10 play.  Here’s Percy Allen’s wrap-up of the game.

This win is significant for the Huskies to get the road monkey off their back and show that they can win tough, grind-it-out games.  It wasn’t pretty, but the Huskies won against a good Trojan team and against the refs.

Now, on to the Holiday Bowl!

Andrew

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by | December 29, 2010 · 1:38 pm

Huskies +/- vs. Nevada

I had meant to put this up for a while, but never got around to it.  For every Husky basketball game that’s on TV from here on out, I will try to put up the +/- for each player.  +/- is an interesting stat for basketball because the sport is so dependent on all 5 players on the court.  I’ll try to add up the stats throughout the season.  Anyway, here are the numbers.  (Venoy Overton was out for this game).

Isaiah Thomas: +37
Abdul Gaddy: +20
Justin Holiday: +31
Aziz N’Diaye: +6
MBA: +35
Darnell Gant: +12
C.J. Wilcox: +12
Scott Suggs: +10
Terrance Ross: +11
Brendan Sherrar:  -6
Antoine Hosley:  -6

This seems about right.  Thomas was easily the best player on the court against Nevada and that shows in this stat.  MBA was the player that benefited most from Thomas and Gaddy passing inside.  He missed so many lay-ins but also was in charge of the post.  I’m not sure why Aziz’s numbers are so low, he played a pretty good game.

I probably won’t be able to do this for tonight’s game, since it’s on the radio, but I will do the UCLA game on Friday.

Andrew

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by | December 28, 2010 · 5:30 pm

What to Make of the Outcome

If you hadn’t heard, the Huskies have a football game in a few days.  It feels a little bit weird, huh?  It does to me too.  Usually at this time of year, my attention has turned to recruiting and neglecting the fact that my team isn’t in a bowl game but not this year!  This will be the first Huskies bowl game I’ll be able to watch since I was 12 years old.  That alone is reason to celebrate.

But, what kind of celebration will take place on Thursday night depending on the outcomes.  The Dawgs are heavy underdogs to a team that already beat them by 35 points this year.  Yes, the Huskies played probably their worst game of the year (Stanford aside) but they were clearly outmatched by a physical, fast Nebraska team.  Is it reasonable to expect a win?  I’m not so sure.  But, is it reasonable to expect the Huskies to be competitive?  Yes.

Here are 3 possible outcomes for the Huskies and what they’d mean to the program and fans:

  • A blowout loss: This outcome isn’t out of the question at all.  A loss by 21 points or more would be frustrating but, it wouldn’t be all that surprising.  We already saw it happen once.  With that being said, it would diffuse a lot of the momentum the Huskies have.  Just 2 years ago, the Huskies were 0-12 and the football program was dead.  Now, they’re in a bowl game (and to think that Cougar fans are happy with Paul Wulff winning 2 games).  This amazing resurgence would be put under a blanket if the Huskies were blown out.  It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but people who doubt Sark’s ability to fully turn the program around will come out of the hiding they’ve been under for the last month. Remember, Arizona was blown out in the Holiday Bowl last year.  I remember watching that game and thinking about how Arizona fans must have been feeling at the time.  They must have been disgusted.  But, I bet that disgust didn’t last long.  So, again, this outcome would be upsetting and annoying but, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
  • A close loss: This is where fans start to disagree.  We can all agree that a blowout loss would be disappointing and a win would be great but, a close loss?  There are a few different view points.  One thing you might hear some fans say is, ” They’ve had a month to prepare, anything short of a win is unacceptable”  Frankly, this is a dumb perspective.  Yes, the Huskies had a month to prepare but so did the Cornhuskers.  I don’t like moral victories but this is one game where I actually believe they exist.  A close loss to Nebraska shows a good deal of improvement.  We could earn the respect of a good opponent and put some fear into them before next year’s match-up.  Most of all, it would show a national audience that a once proud tradition is on it’s way back.   This outcome is the one that reflects where the Huskies are, as a program, most of all.
  • A win: Bob Condotta said in a chat today that if the Huskies won it would be one of the biggest upsets since the Whammy in Miami.  At first, you might think that this sounds a little over the top, but think about it.  A win on Thursday gives the Huskies their first 4 game winning streak since 2001.  That is amazing to think about.  It would give the Huskies their first bowl win since the 2001 Rose Bowl.  It would provide all kinds of momentum heading into next year.  And, I would actually have a new trophy to look at when I went into the Husky hall of fame next year.

Yes, the fact that I have the opportunity to write and look forward to a Husky football game at this point are enough for me.  I understand why they aren’t for some people, but it’s all about perspective in my opinion and the fact that the Dawgs’ are in San Diego right now is pretty amazing when we take a minute to think about it.  But, the game has to be played and that outcome could mean quite a bit heading in to the off-season.

Andrew

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by | December 24, 2010 · 5:52 pm

Who’s Your Gaddy?

The Washington Huskies basketball team is an interesting team to try and figure out (and something we’ll try to figure out more in the coming weeks).  They seem to be a lot like last years team thus far, can’t win on the road and look like they’re a top-10 team at home.  But, I, and I imagine the rest of the good guys, think that this team is better.  One of the reasons for that is Abdul Gaddy.

Last year, Gaddy came to UW as a 17 year old and didn’t live up to expectations.  He was ranked as the number 2 point guard in his recruiting class and was thought to be the player that would take the Huskies to the next level.  He did win a starting job but this was more due to the fact that Overton was more effective coming off the bench than Gaddy being effective as a starter.

Gaddy’s jumper was pretty horrid last year and he seemed to lack quickness.  He did appear to make some progress towards the end of the year, but he was a big question entering the year.

Now, it appears things are different.  Frankly, he looks like a completely different player.  Through 11 games Gaddy has shot 54% from the field and 43% from beyond the arc.  This summer, he was helped out by Ryan Appleby with his shooting, much like Quincy Pondexter last year.  Now, his shot looks almost as natural as anyone’s on the team.

The confidence from his jumper has given the rest of his game life.  He’s put his amazing ball-handling skills on display and finds the open man better than any Husky point guard has since Will Conroy.

In Wednesday’s game against Nevada, Gaddy’s shot wasn’t falling.  He had a few looks from deep where he was pretty open but failed to knock them down.  Last year, that would have been more of the same.  But, this year it was different.  He still had his confidence.  He was still taking the shots and thinking they were going in.  He was still shaking defenders with ease and finding the open man.

My dad always used to tell me that sports were 50% mental, 50% physical.  When you’re talking about the college or professional level this probably is an exaggeration.  But, Gaddy is an example of just how important confidence is.  That confidence makes him fit in with the rest of the team.  And that confidence is the reason why I think these Huskies could make a deep run in March.  Deeper than any Husky team in recent memory.

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by | December 9, 2010 · 7:31 pm

Small Sample Sizes

Player A (over 2 years):

330 Plate Appearances
.176 Batting Average
.218 OBP
.333 Slugging Percentage
.552 OPS
7.43 K/BB ratio
11 HR

Player B:

242 Plate Appearances
.197 Batting Average
.232 OBP
.294 Slugging Percentage
.526 OPS
8.75 K/BB
5 HR

Player A and Player B are very close to the same.  Yes, Player B hit for a higher average but I would argue that Player A is a better offensive player since his OPS is a little higher and he doesn’t strike out quite as much.

Player A is Miguel Olivo and Player B is Adam Moore.  While in Seattle, Miguel Olivo was probably the worst hitter in baseball.  But, the stats show that Adam Moore was just as bad.  Olivo has gotten much better since then.  Seattle was by far his worst stop in the big leagues.  It’s yet to be proven if Adam Moore will develop into anything.

The truth is that all of Seattle has a terrible perception of Miguel Olivo because of a small sample size that is similar to what Moore did last year.  I’m not saying that all of the people who are upset about this move are wrong, but I don’t think this move is worth freaking out about.

I know most of us would like to see if Moore could develop into the top prospect he was.  But, the truth is the Mariners upgraded their catcher position by quite a bit today.  If Olivo is anywhere close to his career norms he will be twice as good as any catcher the Mariners had last year.

People are forgetting about how terrible Mariners’ catchers were last season.  People also forget that, to people in the front office, next year is not a throwaway season.  If the Mariners don’t show drastic improvement Jack Z will be fired sooner rather than later.  The way they have to do this is with small contracts, like the ones they just gave Olivo and Cust.  Yes, you can find a lot of things wrong with signing Miguel Olivo and that is proven by the M’s blogosphere going absolutely crazy (aside from Jeff Sullivan, thanks for your rationale thinking), but the Mariners improved today.

By the way, in the last 2 days, the Mariners signed 2 players that hit a combined 26 home runs last year.  That’s 25% of what the Mariners hit last year.  In 2009, they combined for 48 home runs.  That’s 47.5% of what the Mariners hit last year.  Enough said.

Andrew

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by | December 8, 2010 · 7:56 pm

A Mariners’ Move!

The Seattle Mariners made their first real move of the off-season today, signing Jack Cust to a 2.5 million, 1 year deal.  Dan wrote earlier today about how underwhelming the Mariners off-season had been thus far.  There haven’t been any deals and the rumors have been just as lame.  So, getting an actual bit of news is nice.

Don’t get me wrong, Jack Cust isn’t exactly the most exciting news, especially with the Angels looking like the front-runner for Carl Crawford but I think this was a nice move.  Cust is a left-handed power hitter.  He’s been with the A’s the last few years and has put up solid numbers.  He’s an all-or-nothing type of hitter (like Russell Branyan) who strikes out and walks a ton.

Cust has had a drop-0ff in power the last few years.  His slugging percentages his first two years in the bigs were .504 and .476 (in 2007 and 2008).  The last two years his slugging percentages were .417 and .438.  His home run total has dropped a little bit.  These are the reasons to fear, but there are reasons to expect success.

Cust is a left-handed bat that could do quite well in Safeco.  Signing for 2.5 million is very cheap for a player who would have been the Mariners best power-hitter last year and who will most likely be their best power-hitter this year.  Cust will step into the middle of the lineup and actually give this team at least a little bit of a threat.

Will Cust turn this team around?  No, but he’ll be one of the small pieces that could turn this team back to respectability.  We don’t have much money to spend, but this was a low risk-high reward type of move that we’re used to seeing out of Jack Z.

In other news, the Mariners are reportedly on the verge of signing Miguel Olivo to a 2 year, $7.5 million deal.  When Mariner fans think of Miguel Olivo most come close to throwing up in their mouths, but the truth is he’s not near as bad as we remember.  And, don’t forget that Rob Johnson was our starting catcher a good share of last year.  We’ll have more on this move if it actually happens.  As of now, it’s nothing but rumors.

Believe big!

Andrew

 

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by | December 6, 2010 · 4:53 pm

The Shirt Change

I’m superstitious.  I blame it on playing baseball during my grade school days where superstition is just part of the game; don’t step on the chalk, don’t talk to a pitcher if he’s throwing a no-hitter, and so on.

So, on Saturday night, I was faced with a dilemma.  I had worn my black Husky shirt in the Washington wins against UCLA and Cal.  Was the shirt on a roll or had it used all the luck it could muster?  Plus, I hadn’t done laundry and the black shirt was dirty.

There was also one more thing to take into consideration: this could have been Jake Locker’s last game.  With all this in mind, I carefully decided on my Jake Locker jersey.  I hadn’t worn it on gameday since the BYU game to start the year but I had to give it another chance.  Thankfully, with that jersey on, I watched Mr. Locker throw the most important pass Husky football has seen in at least 8 years.

I don’t want to take all the credit for this victory, but I don’t know what the outcome would have been if I had worn the black shirt.  Maybe the Huskies would have won the game by more, or maybe we wouldn’t be looking forward to a bowl game right now.  All I know is I’m happy with the choice I made and now I have to focus on what I’ll be wearing on December 30th.

Andrew

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